By Subhash K Jha

This looks like one of the most challenging years for India's mega-star. Even as Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvidaa Na Kehna, featuring AB in a sensually-charged role nears completion, he's already on to two other projects that feature him in never-before roles.

"I started Balakrishan's Cheeni Kam on April 6. It's an audacious film. I think Indian cinema is going through a hugely exciting phase. All kinds of films are competing with one another, and I'm part of that movement. It's an exciting phase for me. I'm truly grateful to God."

The one everyone is talking about it Ram Gopal Varma's Nishabd where AB is featured in a Lolita-like love story with an 18-year old girl.

And he's more than game for the challenge. "You can't always be the perfect humanbeing in screen. There're no perfect humanbeings. To show human failings on screen is a sign of acceptance and a measure of creative freedom.

Cinema is about human realationships. To deny the existence of such feelings in humanbeings would be wrong. Ramu is extremely honest in his work. Even before he made Sarkar he admitted that The Godfather was his inspiration for it.

But look at the manner in which he treated Sarkar ! It was a completely different experience from The Godfather."

AB further explains, "Ramu and I have been toying with several projects including Sholay, Sarkar 2 and Ek. The Sarkar sequel and Ek have to be co-ordinated with Abhishek's dates (yes, he's in both). Abhishek committed to do Mani Rathnam's film and others. Sholay requires a lot of physical activity which I'm at the moment, not up to. Ramu and I decided to do this romantic film at a stretch in twenty-five days."

AB admits Nishabd is a departure for him and for Ramu as well. "It's an intense love story that looks into closed doors to see the passions that simmer within every human-being under the surface. But let me also add that we won't be going into the physical aspect of the relationship at all. "

The actor-extrordinaire admits he's charged about Nishabd. "Going by the quality of performance that Ramu got out of me and Abhishek and Sarkar I'm sure he has some fantastic plans for me in Nishabd. But I must say this isn't his first intense love story.

Ramu has done Naach which was also a passionate love story. It may not have worked at the boxoffice. But it certainly succeeded in creating a new kind of love idiom from an oft-told story.

And it opened up Abhishek as an actor, put him in touch with emotions that he had never touched before. This is one of Ramu's specialities. On the surface he may seem like an ordinary dishevelled working-class guy with several ideas crowding his head. But he's a very systematic and sensitive filmmaker."

At this juncture in his career when new frontiers need to open up, AB isn't the least hesitant about taking on a role that's stunningly unorthodox. "It

all depends on the filmmmaker's convictions. If he has faith and belief in the artiste, nothing can stop a film from becoming a true and sensitive mirror of life. As an artiste I need to surrender completely to Ramu's vision. I never questioned him in Sarkar.

Abhishek felt the same way about Ramu during Naach and Sarkar. The fact is, Abhishek needed a Ram Gopal Varma to egg him on. Ramu is very well-researched....Did he say we've become addicted to each other?

He's a decent chap....very clear and professional. 'Do your job and I'm out of here'. I need that professionalism and passion among my directors. Sanjay Bhansali, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Ram Gopal Varma are extremely passionate about their work, almost to the level of obsession."

AB admits he had no hesitancy is expecting a part that required him to be romantically involved with an 18-year old girl. "I need to work and I need the challenges. Look at Black! It was a complete complete COMPLETE departure from anything I had done before. Who would have ever thought it would be such an all-round landmark? How would I know if there're more Blacks in store unless I step into the unknown?"

Now he's off to shoot Cheeni Kam. "That's again a completely different story. That's a sarcastic humorous take on love...I don't know how else to describe it. It's got a lot of tongue-in-cheek humour. It's not about deliberately falling in love...Again, it's never been done before.

Very different. ...I can't play the traditional leading man. Even in Ravi Chopra's Babul where I'm playing a patriarch I've a cause to fight for....It tackles an extremely important aspect of society.

And Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvidaa Na Kehna takes a look at things that happen behind closed doors. I think it's extremely brave of today's filmmakers to want to talk about supposedly taboo topics, to project such issues artistically. It's happening all over the world.

Look at Brokeback Mountain...who would have thought such a love story to be possible some years ago? It's a world of lot more open-ness where creative freedom to depict forbidden subjects does exist. These films are opening doors that were so far closed and allowing the audience to judge whether the frank attitude to cinema is really justified. "

Speaking of Taboo, AB all praise for his Cheeni Kam co-star. "Tabu is gorgeous. What an artiste. Ours is a fun film. Doing a serious film together would've been too obvious."